I guess I'm willing to give the guy a break, my dad would be 93 tomorrow, and Patrick didn't create the world he grew up in. That said I'm not giving him an unlimited run. At the core of my kindness is his decision not to run for re-election.

Stick you fat ass in elective office again and I'll retract this immediately.

Could some one 'splain to me how this touching "personal sentiment" get picked up by our news media?

Divine revelation I suppose

If it was a heartfelt personal note, then Mr Kennedy should not have alerted the news to cover it. Sad--genuinely sad--and what is sad? that the media would cover it, and apparently some people would believe it.

As President Obama would say, this past week has been a "teachable" moment.

While Democrats have shown political courage and have been magnanimous in this victory that they have achieved for the American people, Republicans have been petty and grossly uncivil in their fight to protect the worst abuses of the insurance industry.

It is my sense that the political fever that has gripped this country over the pass many months has been broken. Democrats look like winners fighting for average Americans. Republicans now look like whiny losers.

"While Democrats have shown political courage and have been magnanimous in this victory that they have achieved for the American people"

I guess it takes courage to defy the people. What they have "achieved for the American people" is more intrusive government and more ruinous debt. The truly poor already had access to health care. Thanks Democrats.

No option for "Sickening". (The third option is close, but doesn't quite reach the right level to express my feelings.)

"Ick" would do as well. Seriously, what kind of a person relates to his father that way? Let alone invites the press. I can only hope that this is solely political bullshit, done for the publicity at the request of the President or Speaker, and that it has nothing to do with what's in his heart for his father.

vw: "leevoner". There's probably an Elton John joke in here somewhere, but I'm not finding it.

Please read "profiles in Courage".Also, by next week polls will start to show that Americans generally approve of the leadership President Obama has displayed over the past several weeks and of this legislation.

It would be sick-making tripe in any case, but it's not even true. This misbegotten gift to the health insurance industry hardly "completes" the "unfinished business" of providing all Americans access to competent, thorough, and affordable health care.

We need to kill the insurance companies and institute universal health care, aka "Medicare for All." (We also need to cut the war budget at least by half--preferably more--the better to allocate that money where it will better serve us.)

Now the American people know what was actually in this bill and that they were misled by the Republicans.

You can now feel the backlash among the American people that is forming against the GOP. Being a party that tolerates lying and personal ugly behavior like call heroes of the civil rights movement the worst imaginable slurs is taking its toll.

"It is my sense that the political fever that has gripped this country over the pass many months has been broken. Democrats look like winners fighting for average Americans. Republicans now look like whiny losers."

I'm not a Republican.

You're sorely mistaken to think that this is a democrat/Republican issue and that mistake is going to fucking bury you. Count on it.

You and your revolting comrades have made yourselves permanent enemies.

"Being a party that tolerates lying and personal ugly behavior like call heroes of the civil rights movement the worst imaginable slurs is taking its toll."

We're not going to let you get away with your lies anymore. We're not going to let you play your psy-ops games anymore. We're not going to allow you to get away with any of your shit anymore. One way or another, you're going to be held to account for what you've done and what you're doing.

"Your kind have never defined America over the long haul in American history. It won't win this time either."

My kind (my family) have fought for this country generation after generation so don't tell me that "my kind" haven't defined America. "My kind" helped build and defend this country and that's why "my kind" is not going to allow you to ruin it.

By all means, run on the angry (and in your case, sometimes clearly drunk) wingnut taking retribution against those in favor against health care reform. I can see the ads now. I'm sure that will be a big winner for you.

Oh poor abused Patrick Kennedy! An orphan! I can tell you that I read his press release about his visit to daddy's ditch with the utmost solemnity and compassion and reverence due to such an honorable and august figure. I even shed a tear or two. I'll be issuing a press release about the experience shortly.

I have talked to many good Americans today and I have heard over and over that they feel an even greater sense of elation and pride than they did on the day after Barack Obama was elected president of this great country.

"I have talked to many good Americans today and I have heard over and over that they feel an even greater sense of elation than they did on the day after Barack Obama was elected president of this great country.

God Bless America!!!"

LOL. Come on, fess up. Were you really able to type that without cracking up. I mean, maybe just a little? I mean, I can't even read it without chortling briefly and then burping up a little of lunchtime's chickpea salad. But to actually write something like that?

You should write press releases for Patrick Kennedy, with that kind of talent.

"I have talked to many good Americans today and I have heard over and over that they feel an even greater sense of elation than they did on the day after Barack Obama was elected president of this great country.

God Bless America!!!"

You deleted it and then re-posted it so you could add "and pride"?? LOL. I mean, you're going to give yourself cavities if you pour any more syrup into that gruel!

-Have you ever drowned a woman? -Have you ever cheated on your significant other?-Have you ever attempted to dry hump an unwilling waitress?-Have you ever offered to work with the Soviets to undermine your own President?

Ahh, there's that patented Democrat compassion for the Appalachian poor. "Look you inbred little poverty-stricken pissants! We got you the appearance of health care! But we're not going to stop making fun of you and treating you with contempt! We're Democrats!"

Ted Kennedy was a corrupt alcoholic narcissistic overgrown trust fund baby, living off his megalomaniac father's illegal rum-running fortune, whose overt and covert support for the Irish Republican Army and for abortion caused far more death and destruction than anyone bearing the label "human being" ought to have caused. He was a scumbag. His supporters are scumbags. The party he represented is run by scumbags.

Other than that, he was a pretty decent guy who got along with anyone who had a scotch bottle.

Oh, and since so many here consider Ted Kennedy a "murderer," then you must also feel the same way about this person:

In May 2000, 17-year-old Laura Welch ran a stop sign, causing the death of the sole occupant of the vehicle hers had struck.

She entered an intersection without heeding the stop sign and there collided with the Corvair sedan driven by 17-year-old Michael Douglas. (That's right...she ran the stop sign.)

The boy's father had been traveling in a car immediately behind his son's and witnessed the whole thing. (Isn't that nice?)

He had been a star athlete, excelling in track and football, and was also nominated as the school's most popular boy while a junior, an honor that almost always went to a senior.

The accident is difficult to understand in that it took place on a clear night on dry pavement at a crossroads described as "the middle of nowhere," where the view was unobstructed and the stop sign that faced Laura Welch was clearly visible. (Gee, do you think she may have been...DRUNK?)

Roger - Where do you or any of the other tea baggers here see anything about a "press release" from Patrick Kennedy or any of the family for that matter?

This is from the Washington Post and unless there's another article Queen Ann hasn't referenced, I didn't see anything about the family releasing anything:

"The late senator's widow, Vicki Reggie Kennedy, spent hours on Sunday at the simple white cross at Arlington National Cemetery marking where her husband was laid to rest only seven months ago. Ted Kennedy's youngest son, Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy (D-R.I.), visited on Monday morning and left a hand-written note that read: "Dad, the unfinished business is done."

Would you and others like to bitch and whine about his widow visiting the grave, too?

You can now feel the backlash among the American people that is forming against the GOP. Being a party that tolerates lying and personal ugly behavior like call heroes of the civil rights movement the worst imaginable slurs is taking its toll.

Surely. That's why we see the Democrats sinking further into the abyss in every poll.

In May 2000, 17-year-old Laura Welch ran a stop sign, causing the death of the sole occupant of the vehicle hers had struck.

The accident is difficult to understand in that it took place on a clear night on dry pavement at a crossroads described as "the middle of nowhere," where the view was unobstructed and the stop sign that faced Laura Welch was clearly visible.

Yeah Jeremy the story just materialized out of thin air. It was nothing Patrick did to alert the press to this oh so touching and poignant third-rate act by a fifth-rate substance -abusing wasted sperm named Patrick Kennedy.

AJ Lynch said..."Yeah Jeremy the story just materialized out of thin air. It was nothing Patrick did to alert the press to this oh so touching and poignant third-rate act by a fifth-rate substance -abusing wasted sperm named Patrick Kennedy."

of course there was no formal press release you fool--a simple phone call from one of Kennedy's staffers to a sympathetic WAPO editor. If my use of the term "press release" confused you I apologize profusely. Apparently it did. The depths of your stupidity continue to amaze me

This contretemps really has me wondering--In the fever swamps of jeremy's mind, two full time reporters are staking out Senator Kennedy's gravesite--presumably 24/7. Miraculously Rep Kennedy shows up with a note after the HCRF passes and is signed. After an appropriate amount of time Rep Kennedy leaves, and the WAPO reporters converge on the headstone, open the note up to find this touching sentiment. Being good WAPO journalists they know they have hit journalistic paydirt, they publish this revelation for a salivating public.

Ah Jeremy--you seem to have a problem with your sexuality. Particularly this fixation on oral sex from strangers--I think there are some twelve step programs that might help you. You may want to consider staying away from some of the rest stops on the freeway.

Tell you what Jeremy--I do have an engagement and wont be back until tomorrow--so you can savage me to your heart's desire--be advised that I will be very hurt and probably have a really bad morning suffering the slings and arrows of your bile, but still little man--I wont be sucking your cock. Have a wonderful evening vandalizing the blog

Senator Ted Kennedy was a very public man. His son, Congressman Patrick Kennedy, is also very much a public person. This legislation becoming law is very much of public interest. The press clearly is focused on the Kennedy legacy in relation to this story.

That you find this is the best place to direct your weaselly venom says more about you than the patriotic Kennedy family who have given their lives to public service for this country.

Senator Ted Kennedy was a very public man. His son, Congressman Patrick Kennedy, is also very much a public person. This legislation becoming law is very much of public interest. The press clearly is focused on the Kennedy legacy in relation to this story.

Right, and as a public person he's going to come into some criticism for these kinds of classless political gestures.

Also, by next week polls will start to show that Americans generally approve of the leadership President Obama has displayed over the past several weeks and of this legislation.

Care to place a bet? I think Obama's "bump" will still leave him with less than a 50% approval rating, and it will be downhill from there.

I have talked to many good Americans today and I have heard over and over that they feel an even greater sense of elation and pride than they did on the day after Barack Obama was elected president of this great country.

You're not talking to same sort of good Americans that I'm talking to. The ones I'm talking to are not limousine liberals like the Kennedy clan, whose personal wealth will shield them from the consequences of this legislation, nor are they loser liberals like Jeremy and garage. They're from the American middle class, and they know who's going to pay the bill for freeloaders on the system.

They're from the American middle class, and they know who's going to pay the bill for freeloaders on the system.

I really hope this is the rallying cry for conservatives - defending with their life, a cruel, unjust, and inhumane health care system where someone who at no fault of their own, contracts a disease is deemed a "freeloader".

I really hope this is the rallying cry for conservatives - defending with their life, a cruel, unjust, and inhumane health care system where someone who at no fault of their own, contracts a disease is deemed a "freeloader".

I hope so too. For every hard luck case you can find where someone is unlucky, you'll find ten people who are gonna cost the rest of us millions of dollars due to their "lifestyle".

Eric wrote " For every hard luck case you can find where someone is unlucky, you'll find ten people who are gonna cost the rest of us millions of dollars due to their "lifestyle"."

Do you mean like Meade quiting his job and marrying Ann Althouse and freeloading off of the taxpapers of Wisconsin? Meade, that is some great "lifestyle" you got going there, you rugged individual you!

"I really hope this is the rallying cry for conservatives - defending with their life, a cruel, unjust, and inhumane health care system where someone who at no fault of their own, contracts a disease is deemed a "freeloader"."

Why would we call someone with a disease a "freeloader"? I'd only call them that if they expected me to pay their way because they decided before they got sick that they didn't want to work for a living.

I like your sneaky little "no fault of their own" caveat. It's a sinister little foretaste of how this "Rainbow Magical Barack Free Health Care" is going to work out for everyone. Some jelly-faced woman in a bureau is going to decide that your heart disease or diabetes or HIV is not going to be covered because you contracted it through fault of your own.

Eventually nothing will be covered or everything will be illegal. Food will be portioned and meted out for you, sex will require licensing, extensive testing and quarantine, and if you're pregnant with a baby that is discovered to be affected by a disorder or defect you'll be required to abort. Because if you went ahead and birthed such a burdensome mass of cells, well, the existence of a defective child would be your own fault! And Barack isn't going to be using the money he took from you to pay for your preventable mistakes!

Presumably Wisconsin pays Althouse to do professor-y things. You see, that's a free exchange of resources. I know it's a bit hard to grasp for community college professors, but try to stay with me here.

I have seen some videos of Patrick's recent appearances in Congress. He seemed volatile and overwrought. He looks like he's teetering on the edge of nervous collapse. I wonder if there is anyone in his immediate circle who would tell him to step back. The Republicans would party all week if he had a full on flame out, and the Dems would characterize it as a manifestation of his intensity. Between the malice of the right and the puffery of the left, he must find it very difficult to find the center.....I'd like to make fun of Patrick but, like Brittney Spears a few months back, it doesn't seem right. He seems like a genuinely screwd up guy.

Ah, jealousy of Althouse and Meade! Now we get at the real reason that "In the Mood" is such a twat: he or she has been "In the Mood" for years but is too stupid and ugly to actually score even a mercy fuck.

Maybe there will be a provision in the Magic Unicorn Barack Free Health Care Program to pay for a little release for the sour little douchebag.

Eventually nothing will be covered or everything will be illegal. Food will be portioned and meted out for you, sex will require licensing, extensive testing and quarantine, and if you're pregnant with a baby that is discovered to be affected by a disorder or defect you'll be required to abort. Because if you went ahead and birthed such a burdensome mass of cells, well, the existence of a defective child would be your own fault! And Barack isn't going to be using the money he took from you to pay for your preventable mistakes!

As is often the case, Ray Davies had something to say about this line of thinking.

@garage, care to list your car collection again for our edification? My off-the-top-of-my-head guess when I saw your list a bunch of months ago was that you own several tens of thousands of dollars worth of classic vehicles. And you decline to part with any of them to afford medicine for your family. Instead, those of us who worked our way into the middle class are expected to dig ever deeper into our pockets (to the tune of one trillion dollars between 2014 and 2020) so that you don't have to sell any of your cars to care for your family.

So you are a freeloading loser liberal, and that's all you'll ever be.

I like your sneaky little "no fault of their own" caveat. It's a sinister little foretaste of how this "Rainbow Magical Barack Free Health Care" is going to work out for everyone. Some jelly-faced woman in a bureau is going to decide that your heart disease or diabetes or HIV is not going to be covered because you contracted it through fault of your own

Have you even bothered to look at any of the proposals or bills? Where does this jelly faced woman in a "bureau" exist in your mind? What dept? What agency? It's just astounding how misinformed you people really are. Your doomsday scenario already fucking exists in our current system.

I couldn't agree more. Growing up with alcoholic parents and becoming one yourself is no picnic. I can empathize. Then add being a Kennedy to that certainly doesn't help (evidence by the comments today). He seems like a guy just trying to do the right thing...and barely making it.

(As for the alleged press release, I was wondering about that myself. Patrick and Vicky, I'm sure, as they politically linked to this very big story, were being watched closely by the press. That's what the press does - follow and write).

As for the Ted comments. Whatever. He's dead. He's worked something out with God. Carry the torch if you want, but it's not going to change anything. I'm not seeing the point.

My total monthly payments are ZERO. Designed that way. The goal is to pay nothing each month, or be on the positive side after I sell and rebuy the next one. I do about 90% of the maintenance myself, and I buy used parts when I can off auto forums. I think I've bought and sold about 12 cars in the past 20 yrs. My first wife used to say "you love that Mercedes more than you love me!". And she was right!

we do not know what was in the note the depraved drunken junkie left on his murdering father's grave. It really is irrelevant. He is not running again and probably will be another dead Kennedy soon.

But, we have real problems here. Purple Shirts like Jeremy who use bullying and thuggery to hijack a comment section. His vocabulary limited to the crudest four letter words, his commentary is inane, and he sounds like an intellectual idiot and mensa moron.

Jeremy, In and garage seem to be arguing that Patrick is not grandstanding. Apparently they missed his embarrassing performance in the well of the House several weeks ago.

Was he Grandstanding then? I leave it to those that see this deplorable performance to decide for themselves whether Kennedy is a either a sincere and genuine person who did not crave publicity regarding the note on his dad's grave, or rather was a grandstanding pol who "leaked" his note to the press.

The Kennedy Legacy:Joe Kennedy- an economic terrorist like George Soros and a con man like Ponzi. Had major associations with New York and Chicago Organized criminals. Supporter of Adolph Hitler.(No wonder Liberals revere him).

John F. Kennedy- won his election with help of organized crime. Hired his brother(nepotism anyone) as US Attorney General. Left the Bay of Pigs freedom fighters stranded. Used the White House as his own personal whore house.

I hope Freeman never fucks up big time in public, and I hope she never faces a situation stronger than her character can deal with.

You just never know when you might drive drunk, cause an accident, leave your passenger for dead, sleep it off, and then try to orchestrate a coverup to protect your political career. Could happen to anyone.

I'm sure I'll wake up in cold sweats with worry about this possibility in my life.

In May 2000, 17-year-old Laura Welch ran a stop sign, causing the death of the sole occupant of the vehicle hers had struck.

The accident is difficult to understand in that it took place on a clear night on dry pavement at a crossroads described as "the middle of nowhere," where the view was unobstructed and the stop sign that faced Laura Welch was clearly visible.

In May 2000, 17-year-old Laura Welch ran a stop sign, causing the death of the sole occupant of the vehicle hers had struck.

The accident is difficult to understand in that it took place on a clear night on dry pavement at a crossroads described as "the middle of nowhere," where the view was unobstructed and the stop sign that faced Laura Welch was clearly visible.

That describes Laura Bush. It sure as hell does not describe Teddy Kennedy. Getting drunk, cheating on yoru wife, leaving Mary Jo to drown, lying about it, and then getting special treatment because you are a Kennedy (even if you are the half wit fuckup of the family) is something else. There were houses right there he could have gone to and called for help, but Ted was more important.

Did he learn from that mistake even? Hell no. He was a hell raiser for years until the health toll of it all slowed him down. Lord Jim? Ted Kennedy was far from that.

Only hours after the president signed health care reform legislation into law on Tuesday, the immediate political benefits for the Democratic Party are already coming into focus.

According to a Gallup/USA Today poll conducted the day after health care legislation passed the House of Representatives, 49 percent of the respondents think the passage of reform is a "good thing," compared to the 40 percent who think it is bad.

When I was younger I knew a young lady who was the daughter of a famous politician. (Not a Kennedy) She was smart and very good looking and seemed to be on a completely different flight path than the other students. Some people went out of their way to be her friend, but others went out of their way to tell her that she was nothing special. A lifetime of that can get inside your head. She was pleasant enough, but there was something guarded and brittle about her. Perhaps there was another crowd of her peers in Washington that she could relax with, but among civilians she was very wary and a little distrustful......This isn't the saddest story you ever heard. I just blogged her. The sketchy facts are not troubling to read, but there doesn't seem to be a surfeit of glittering prizes either. Her father is now almost forgotten. She can rest easy that her obscurity is not a stain on the family name.

Not the first time FLS has gone out of his way to defend Ted Kennedy's behavior in the Chappaquiddick incident.

Dead drunk, he drives off a bridge, saves only himself, and leaves a young woman to die. Surely he was wrong to drink and drive, but it's hard to figure out what to do in a crisis when you're DEAD DRUNK.

A few weeks ago I was reading Christopher Lawford's lovely, candid and affectionate remembrance of growing up in a particular time and place with a particular family, the Kennedys, circa roughly 1950-2000. It's called "Symptoms of Withdrawal." At the end he quotes his Uncle Teddy. Christopher, Ted Kennedy and a few family members had gathered one night and were having a drink in Mr. Lawford's mother's apartment in Manhattan. Teddy was expansive. If he hadn't gone into politics he would have been an opera singer, he told them, and visited small Italian villages and had pasta every day for lunch. "Singing at la Scala in front of three thousand people throwing flowers at you. Then going out for dinner and having more pasta." Everyone was laughing. Then, writes Mr. Lawford, Teddy "took a long, slow gulp of his vodka and tonic, thought for a moment, and changed tack. 'I'm glad I'm not going to be around when you guys are my age.' I asked him why, and he said, 'Because when you guys are my age, the whole thing is going to fall apart.' "

Mr. Lawford continued, "The statement hung there, suspended in the realm of 'maybe we shouldn't go there.' Nobody wanted to touch it. After a few moments of heavy silence, my uncle moved on."

Lawford thought his uncle might be referring to their family--that it might "fall apart." But reading, one gets the strong impression Teddy Kennedy was not talking about his family but about . . . the whole ball of wax, the impossible nature of everything, the realities so daunting it seems the very system is off the tracks.

And--forgive me--I thought: If even Teddy knows . . .

Got news for y'all. There are not going to be any more elections. Between the economic dismantling and racial-tension-fanning that the dems and press are doing, we'll be in a state of emergency in time for Obama to cancel elections for the foreseeable future. Pelosi knows it; it's why she doesn't give a damn about what polls tell her. She's not worried about ever losing power.

If you want to learn about social justice, you should pick up a copy of the Poverty and Social Justice Bible and memorize the 2,000 passages overlooked by members of the GOP in this healthcare reform bill. But here are a few quotes for starters:

He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God." Proverbs 14:31

"He who gives to the poor will lack nothing, but he who closes his eyes to them receives many curses." Proverbs 28:27

Here are some additional quotes, if you need the short list: http://home.snu.edu/~hculbert/poor.htm

I define social justice as follows: a society that gives individuals and groups fair treatment and an equitable share of the benefits of society.

Anyone who calls themselves a Christian knows that it is a COMMANDMENT to serve the poor and needy. No it is not voluntary; that's hedonism. Those that are in Christ do not continue to sin and hoard for self.

"If there is a poor man among your brothers in any of the towns of the land that the LORD your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward your poor brother." Deuteronomy 15:7

Healthcare is a gift from God at Easter, to remind of us a God who sent his son in the flesh to HEAL the SICK and FEED the POOR. He did not come for those who THINK they know it all; those people who acted holy but withheld sharing were the goats he promised to divide from his SHEEP, who know him and follow his will.